BY JOHN SNYDER
OF PASCACK PRESS
TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON, N.J.—The Township Council has consented to James A. Viviano making application to the Planning Board involving town-owned land across from Immaculate Heart Academy that the developer needs for a proposed subdivision.
The consent is not part of the regular land use process. Approved April 1 after a closed Mayor and Council meeting of an hour and a quarter, the resolution was spurred by Viviano and refers to letters from his legal team dated Jan. 14 and Feb. 28.
The resolution notes that the township owns Lot 1.05 in Block 1305 and Lot 2 in Block 1306—land promised to the developer at 2001 prices—but does not say much more.Borough Attorney Kenneth Poller declined to characterize those letters, asked for at the meeting by a Pascack Press reporter.
“I don’t think we’re going to be doing that. It was a closed-session matter; it involved litigation, it involves things that are complex,” Poller said.
Despite neighbors’ objections, Viviano is in sight of taking out permits to erect 48 single-family homes, 25 townhomes, and a commons on 14.32 acres between Van Emburgh Avenue and the Garden State Parkway.
The project includes a private road, two public roads, parking areas, and a detention basin.
The township has not sold its land yet. One councilman described it as “a sliver, really, and otherwise undevelopable.”
Hearings on the subdivision go back as far as 2002; the township and Viviano settled litigation related to the Mount Laurel Doctrine for affordable housing in 2001, and then the property was zoned for single-family homes and townhouses.
The closed session was billed as taking place under pending or potential litigation related to COAH, which refers to the Council on Affordable Housing, which was responsible for ensuring that all 566 New Jersey municipalities provided their fair share of low- and moderate-income housing.
There is no affordable housing planned at the site; in addition to establishing affordable housing overlays elsewhere in town, the township advanced an estimated $350,000 to the City of Bayonne for affordable housing there.
Township resident Megan Callea, who lives on Katharina Place, said at the Sept. 26, 2018 Planning Board meeting that she was concerned about traffic and density, characterizing the project as what one would see in Jersey City or Hoboken. Another resident said it was a “monster” plan more in keeping with Manhattan.
“We’re OK with something going in. We’re not against houses going in but they need to be reasonable. Seventy-three lots, that’s high density. You guys are changing the reason we moved here,” she said.
Residents on the move
As the public is not allowed to attend executive meetings of the government, the nine objectors present, and their attorney, were made to leave the April 1 council meeting space just after the 7:30 p.m. Pledge of Allegiance.
The administration also denied their request to unlock the adjacent Jack Woods Senior Center, where they might wait in comfort.
Instead, the residents accepted an invitation from WCTV-NJ “Exit 168” host Larry Lifrieri to wait in the studio, on the third floor. Within minutes Lifrieri was moderating an hourlong televised round-robin on life in the Township of Washington—all topics welcome except the subdivision.
When the executive meeting ended, the residents hustled back down to council chambers.
Council President Michael DeSena, Vice President Steve Cascio, and Councilman Michael Ullman voted for giving consent. Arthur Cumming recused himself without explanation, and Robert Bruno abstained, which put him with the majority.
Ullman said “I don’t believe that this sitting council needs to provide consent. I believe that consent was given previously with the settlement agreement with Viviano. But I do understand that by not consenting we are opening ourselves up to the potential for litigation.”
Bruno explained his vote by saying, “I’ve heard arguments on both sides. It goes back to 2001, which I was not involved with. I just don’t understand why we have to do it.”
According to Allen Bell, brought in by the township as special counsel for the application, the project’s overall benefit to residents is that it conforms to the township’s Master Plan, which relies on it to satisfy the township’s settlement with Fair Share Housing.
Last year Viviano requested a final concession—to do with sewage handling. It said its next step would be to take out permits.
At that, objectors and some Planning Board members brought up issues of density, traffic safety, contamination, alleged lack of coordination with the school district, defects in the application, tax breaks, and alleged conflicts of interest—all of which, at least at that Planning Board meeting, the applicant said had nothing to do with its sewage request and were irrelevant.
The applicant has since engaged with the objectors on some of their concerns.
Lawsuit ‘a logical next step’
Asked April 2 whether any of the parties had threatened the township with legal action if it did or didn’t consent to the application, Ullman said, “I don’t think that term [lawsuit] was used. In my opinion I didn’t see anything that said outright that they would sue the town but I think it would be a logical next step.”
Callea told Pascack Press April 4 that the fight has brought her neighbors together, and that the turn of events, if nothing else, shows the strength of community.
“This has reminded us we’re all the same people. No matter where you are in life—some of our kids are in college; my youngest is 10 weeks—you have to stay involved in the community. If we hadn’t shown up at that one Planning Board meeting this would all be a done deal,” she said.
